


The Evolution of Friendship

by missmichellebelle



Category: Pocket Monsters: X & Y | Pokemon X & Y Versions, Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Pokemon Fusion, Childhood Friends, Coming of Age, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Pokemon Journey
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-08
Updated: 2016-09-08
Packaged: 2018-08-13 22:47:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7988935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missmichellebelle/pseuds/missmichellebelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The time has finally come. Eren is about to start pursuing his dream. Eren is going to try and fit his entire life in a backpack and leave Vaniville. To go to Lumiose, to go to Professor Sycamore’s lab, to get his first Pokémon. To become, hopefully, eventually, <i>possibly</i>, some sort of Pokémon Master or something.</p><p>Which means…</p><p>Eren is going to <i>leave</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. chapter one

**Author's Note:**

> my contribution for the 2k16 SnK Minibang over on tumblr.
> 
> I bit off a bit more than I could chew with this idea. it kept growing and growing the more I played with it and, to be perfectly honest, five chapters isn't even enough to do Levi and Eren's Pokémon journey the justice I would like to give it. but it'll have to do (for now).
> 
> I set their journey in Kalos, because XY are the games that made me fall in love with the Pokémon franchise again and therefore I'm the most familiar with them (and also they have the most recent gen of Pokémon). on top of that, did you guys ever notice that like ever city in that region is surrounded by _walls?_ talk about appropriate...
> 
> I fussed around with a lot of details, such as the age someone would start their Pokémon journey and how they would go about doing so, and I also blended a lot of elements from both the games and the anime. because, like it or not, it's fucking difficult to make those games into a plausible narrative. WHERE DO YOU SLEEP? so a lot of the time you will see Levi pointing out some very large plot holes. WHOOPS.
> 
> that said, I had the honor of working with not one, not two, but _three_ artists for this challenge and I feel very blessed. ;u; thanks for hanging in there with me, guys.  <3 I'll update the links below as their artwork is posted.
> 
>  
> 
> **[art by emojigo](http://emojigo.tumblr.com/post/150310051287/my-art-piece-for-missmichellebelle-and-her-fic) | [art by lajoiedemourrir](http://lajoiedemourrir.tumblr.com/post/150138625581/im-not-a-little-kid-anymore-a-comission-for) | art by miluuu forthcoming**

Levi hears Eren’s approach long before he’s vaulting over the waist-high garden gate, his sudden appearance nearly scaring the petals right off his mom’s Lilligant. She scuttles quickly away from the bed of just budding leppa plants she had been tending, tucking herself firmly behind Levi’s legs. She never has been all that fond of Eren, but then, he used to try and kick her around when she was still just a Petilil.

“Levi!” Eren calls for what must be the hundredth time since he burst out of his door a few moments ago. It’s a few houses down the road, but Levi had still heard the loud and damning _thwack_ of the door as it flew open and into the wall of the house. “Levi!” Eren is panting, even though he can’t have run more than a _block_.

“Catch your breath,” Levi chides, clapping his gardening gloves together to free them of dust before he pulls them from his hands. “And stop yelling. You’re scaring Lilly.”

Lilly gives an affirmative call from just behind the backs of Levi’s knees, and Eren’s attention immediately turns there. The poor Pokémon immediately starts to jitter nervously, and Levi reaches behind him to soothingly touch the soft petals atop her head.

“I didn’t even see her,” Eren admits, and looks about a second from crouching down to try and interact with the poor thing. If only Eren would understand how much Lilly would rather he _didn’t_.

“Why exactly were you yelling my name?” Levi intercepts, and Eren’s entire face shifts, mouth beaming in a smile that lights up his eyes.

“ _Levi_ ,” Eren says again, the rush of breath through the word making it shudder with some kind of uncontainable happiness. “It’s _time_.”

It doesn’t even take a moment for Levi to understand what, exactly, it’s time for. He’s known Eren for long enough now that it would just be idiotic to ask for clarification. For years, Eren has been waiting for the moment he’d be able to set off and get his own Pokémon, to start his journey, but his mom, well… Carla Jaeger has never been _thrilled_ at the idea of Eren going off into the world on his own.

Especially when becoming a Pokémon Trainer is not exactly the easiest, or even _safest_ , pursuit.

It’s been an uphill battle ever since Eren came of age several months ago, and Levi wonders what shifted that finally made her acquiesce.

Maybe Eren had threatened to leave either way.

Sounds like something he’d do.

“Ah, the planets have finally aligned just right,” he surmises dryly instead, and Eren is already nodding vigorously.

“She finally said yes! _She finally said yes!_ ” Eren still doesn’t sound like he believes it. “Oh Arceus, I can’t believe she—I came over to tell you right away, she said yes and I was like, _wait until Levi hears about this_ , and—”

“Wait.” Levi holds up his hand for emphasis. “She just said yes?” He frowns. “Basically just now?”

“Yeah, can you believe it?” Eren looks nearly hysterical with his joy. “There’s so much I have to do, like, how do I even _pack_ for something like this, and do I call ahead to the lab? To let them know I’m coming? _What if I get there and there aren’t any Pokémon?_ ” Eren is suddenly gripping his hair and tripping over backwards. “Shit, I have to leave. I’ll see you later!”

“Use the gate!” Levi yells, but Eren is already clumsily jumping over the fence again and taking off, and Levi watches him go with a tired sigh.

Lilligant lets out a quiet call of relief, and then heads over to tend to the sapplings once more—specifically the ones Eren had trampled slightly both on his entrance and exit to and from the garden. Thankfully, it looks to be mostly kelpsy plants; his mom should, hopefully, not be _too_ angry about that one.

(One time, Eren had destroyed an entire row of just-sprouted sitrus. Levi’s mom had _not_ been happy; she’d made Eren replant the entire crop all by himself as punishment.)

“Well, at least you won’t have to worry about him anymore,” Levi tells Lilly softly, although maybe he’s distantly addressing his mom, as well. He’s still looking in the direction of Eren’s hasty retreat, and the frown on his mouth deepens as the news settles in.

The time has finally come. Eren is about to start pursuing his dream. Eren is going to try and fit his entire life in a backpack and leave Vaniville. To go to Lumiose, to go to Professor Sycamore’s lab, to get his first Pokémon. To become, hopefully, eventually, _possibly_ , some sort of Pokémon Master or something.

Which means…

Eren is going to _leave_.

*

“So my mom was saying that they don’t just, like,  _run_ out of Pokémon, which I guess was a little ridiculous for me to think.” Once again, Levi is hard at work while Eren sits atop the wall that fences in the Ackerman's backyard. Unlike the garden gate Eren had so easily jumped over the day before, the wall is a significantly higher barrier that involves Eren amusingly scrambling up the side of it reach his perch. “Like, that’s what breeders are for, right? But you still hear all those stories about people that show up to start their Pokémon journey and there aren’t any Pokémon and they end up with, like, the leftover, reject Pokémon…” Eren wrinkles his nose, and it makes Levi want to scoff—at this point, he’s sure Eren will take _any_ Pokémon he’s handed. “But Professor Sycamore has more than just, like, _three_ Pokémon, but there has to be some kind of system to it, right? Where they only give them out at certain ratios so you don’t end up with like 500 Fennekins and 800 Froakies—”

“When do you leave?” Levi butts in, focusing more on the pecha berries he’s harvesting than Eren’s rambling (or so he keeps telling himself). There’s just the right amount of give to the pecha’s skin that makes them perfect for near-immediate sale in Aquacorde, but he’s hoping there are some firmer ones for the shipments to Santalune and Lumiose.

“If my luck holds, two days!” Eren’s heels knock against the brick as he alternates kicking his legs back and forth. He’s not _so_ far up there on the garden wall, but to Levi, he suddenly seems a million miles away. “I can tell that my mom is still trying to delay as much as possible, but the longer I stay, the harder it will be for me to ever _actually_ leave, ya know?”

It’s a fair argument. So long as they’ve been neighbors, the argument over Eren becoming a Pokémon trainer has been ongoing between him and Carla Jaeger. With a husband away chasing the ever evolving science of, well, _evolutionary_ stones, she’s been adamant on Eren pursuing a safer, more stable career and life path (that would, preferably, be closer to home).

Pokémon training is _none_ of these things.

It had all gotten much worse when Levi had come of age and done exactly what Mrs. Jaeger had wanted for Eren—he made the choice to stay home and help his mom.

Eren had felt so over-dramatically betrayed by Levi’s choice that he stopped speaking to him for nearly a _month_ afterward.

And then, of course, all of Eren’s other friends had started leaving on their own Pokémon journeys. First Mikasa, then Jean, and apparently it had been Sasha’s recent departure that had been Eren’s last straw. After all, he’s been sixteen for months already.

As stubborn as Carla Jaeger is, she’s not stubborn enough that she’s willing to lose her son over the entire thing. Whether or not she agreed, Eren was going to leave soon enough either way.

Yet another one of Eren’s impulsive, idiotic, and all around thoughtless plans.

“Is she going with you to Lumiose?” Levi asks, handing off his now-full basket of berries to the Leavanny just behind him. He chirrups, handing Levi an empty basket, and then begins his graceful stride back towards the house.

“Nah.” Eren shrugs, shakes his head, bounces his heels on the bricks. “I think maybe she really wants to, but realized she’d probably end up dragging me back before we even reached Santalune.” He snorts, but the smile that settles on his face is fond. “Probably wants to leave things on a better note than that so I have a reason to come back someday.”

There’s a tight grip on Levi’s esophagus that makes him pause in his work completely, his gloved hands warm on his thighs where they’ve slumped, heavy and useless. “You’re going alone?”

“Well, yeah.” Eren tips his head to the side as if confused. “Most people go on their Pokémon journeys alone, Levi.” His face suddenly pinches, insolent and insulted, like something has just slotted into place. “I’m not a little kid anymore.”

He’s three years Levi’s junior, but it’s been a long time now since Levi has thought of Eren as a child—even if he is one, and even if Levi constantly refers to him _as_ one. It makes sense that Eren would jump to that conclusion, because it’s the same one everyone else has no doubt thrown in his face. Especially his mom.

But it’s not the age thing that worries Levi at all. It’s more of the fact that Eren is, well, _Eren_. The mastermind behind more impulsive, idiotic plans than cutting ties with his own family and hometown to essentially become _homeless_. The guy who had unthinkingly (and unknowingly) thrown a large rock at a tree covered in Kakuna out of anger, and nearly been killed by the swarm of Beedril he’d disturbed as a result. Not to mention that no Pokémon in town ever wants to be _near_ him, either because he’s tormented, manhandled, or chased them at some point in time.

So it’s not that Eren is a child. It’s that he’s a fucking magnet for trouble and unfortunate circumstances, and that he dives into everything head first and foolish.

And because he has no fucking clue how to take care of a Pokémon.

Levi contemplates the pecha in his gloved hand, mouth set in a hard line. He convinces himself that he’s still mulling over a decision he made the second Eren told him he was leaving Vaniville.

“I’m going to Aquacorde in a few days to deliver a shipment to our vendor there.” He’s speaking to the berry, and, resolutely, _not_ to Eren. “So I could see you to the bridge.” It feels like a weak excuse the second he says it—a flimsy, easily torn veil that Eren could prod at and reveal the layered truths behind it. “If you want.” Fuck, Levi hates feeling easy to read. “I have to go either way.” There’s no way Eren’s not going to call him on his bullshit.

But the anxiety of that possibility hardly lasts a moment. Eren’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise, and a pleased grin blossoms across his face.

“Really?” Complete and utter earnesty. Not even a hint that he thinks that there’s something else going on behind Levi’s words. “That would be awesome.”

Levi hums in affirmation, dips his head, and continues his charade of focusing on work and not on the endless stream of excited babble flowing uninhibited past Eren’s lips.

*

“That’s it?” Levi cranes his neck to look around Eren, trying to spot an additional bag, or a trunk, or _something_ , but it seems that all he really does have is a backpack.  “That’s all you’re taking with you?”

And for what feels like the hundredth time in the last few days, Eren gives Levi this look, like Levi has no idea how this whole thing is supposed to work. “Yeah? I have to carry everything I own with me now. I can’t exactly afford to be sentimental.” Eren grins at him. “I guess that Charizard figurine you got me for my tenth birthday will just have to stay behind.”

Levi hates that fucking Charizard figurine and the fact that he ever gave it to Eren, if only because he likes to bring it up _so fucking much_.

“I’m not talking about being sentimental,” Levi says through grit teeth, forcing the words through the mixture of annoyance and embarrassment stuck in his throat. “I’m talking about being practical.”

“I _am_ being practical,” Eren insists, hotly. “What am I supposed to do, strap my dresser to my back and call it a day? I have clothes. That’s all I need.” He says it with such confidence that Levi might possibly believe him if Eren didn’t use the same tone of voice to say things like _I can totally jump across the roofs between my house and yours_ (before severely injuring himself attempting to do just that). “I’ll be sleeping and eating at Poké Centers.”

“What if you don’t make it to one?” Levi’s stare is challenging. “What if you have to sleep outside, or cook your own meals? How are you going to wash your clothes, or, for fuck’s sake, _yourself?_ ”

And all Levi can think is, _Thank Arceus he has me_.

“Look, I’ll figure it out as I go, all right?” Eren’s expression goes from burning ferocity to cold darkness like a slide of a shadow across his face. He shoulders past Levi with all the implication and bravado of heading to Aquacorde all on his own. “I’ll play it by ear and if—you’re bringing _that?_ ”

Eren has stopped abruptly, and is gesturing to the cart hitched to the back of Levi’s bike. It’s neatly stacked to bursting with crates of different kinds of berries from the Ackerman’s gardens, most of which Levi has cultivated and picked all on his own.

Looking at them now gives him a tight knot of guilt in his stomach that he tries not to think about too hard.

“How else am I supposed to get these to Aquacorde? Carry them?” Levi rolls his eyes and then grabs his bike by the handlebars, beginning to push it towards the cobbled roadway he can see from the front of Eren’s house. It will lead them past a few more rows of houses like the one they live on before taking them through the town square and then… Out of Vaniville. “You coming?” Levi asks when he’s made it to the edge of Eren’s gate and he’s still standing there by the pathway that leads to his front door, shifting his weight.

He looks all a sixteen-year-old boy about to leave the comfort and familiarity of home for what can only be described as The Unknown. It’s a day that Eren has basically been counting down to since the second the possibility even entered his head. It’s his dream.

Levi wonders if Eren ever thought about how truly difficult it would be to take that first step towards it.

“Yeah,” Eren finally says, hitching his backpack a little higher on his shoulders and jogging the last few steps to where Levi is waiting. “Yeah. Let’s go.”

They go.

They turn back just once when they reach the end of the lane, looking at their childhood homes, and Levi is sure he sees the shadow of a figure in the upstairs window of the Jaeger house. Not that it surprises him—if Carla Jaeger can’t see her son off in person, there’s no question she will watch him go until he’s out of sight.

Levi’s eyes twist to his own home, and he sees his mom, out in the front garden with Vaporeon to tend to the plants that require water later in the morning. Her sunhat is large and telling upon her head, and she looks up and towards them, raising her hand in the air in a motionless wave.

Levi copies the movement, holding the image in his sights for a few seconds longer than what is generally reasonable, and then keeps going on.

“Does your mom always see you off when you take day trips for her?” Eren asks as they turn the corner, letting out a low whistle. “And I thought _mine_ was bad.”

The laugh that comes up Levi’s throat is dry and nearly soundless, and the only thing he says on the matter.

*

It’s not until the tires of Levi’s bike hit the more evenly paved roads of Aquacorde Town that he realizes Eren has rarely traveled this far from home. Vaniville might be small, but there’s really no need to leave it unless business or adventure demands otherwise. Not that Eren has never strived for adventure, he’s just always strived for it in the hills and by the rivers rather than along the established routes to towns. It makes walking through the significantly more crowded streets a bit more difficult, considering that Eren seems intent to look everywhere but in front of him.

Vaniville has a morning market every Wednesday, but it’s nothing compared to the daily bustle of the market in Aquacorde.

“If you don’t pay attention, you’re going to walk down a flight of stairs and break your legs before you even encounter a Pokémon in the wild for the first time,” Levi tells him dryly, and Eren is offended into standing a little straighter and keeping his eyes forward at least twenty percent of the time.

“Where are we going?” Eren finally asks, tearing his stare away from a group of children playing with a Zigzagoon. “Is the bridge this way?”

“No.” Levi maneuvers his bike and cart carefully and easily through the stream of shoppers. There’s a lot of them, but they’re easy-going country folk at the end of the day. They have things to do, but there’s no hustle in their movement, no urgency. It’s more like wading through a brook than a river. He knows it has nothing on how Lumiose will be, or even some of the big coastal towns. “The bridge is at the edge of town. I thought I would take care of business before I sent you across it and into Santalune Forest to fend for yourself.” Levi gestures, calmly and casually, in the direction of the bridge. It’s obscured by buildings and people, but over the rooftops loom the silhouettes of distant trees.

With the way Eren pauses to look at them, lower lip drawn between his teeth, Levi wonders how foreboding and ominous they seem to him.

His mother’s contact in Aquacorde is a woman of the same age, widowed and with no children to look after, who goes by the name of Eda. She’s jolly and kind and treats Levi more like he’s family than the son of her supplier. Levi’s never been particularly happy about it, and today it makes the slimy feeling of guilt on the inside of his throat even more prominent.

Levi is sure to do all his discussion and dealings with Eda a fair distance away from Eren, speaking in hushed voices and sidestepping the hug and well-meaning farewell that Eda tries to impart him with. It must be successful, because when Levi reappears before Eren, Eren actually seems incredibly confused.

“Where’d your cart go?” He looks behind Levi like it might somehow be hiding there.

“I left it with the merchant. There’s really no point for me to wait there while she unpacks it.”

“Oh.” Eren’s mouth does something funny, and he bounces on his toes before drawing attention to the back of Levi’s bike again. “You forgot one.”

Levi places a hand on top of the crate of berries now strapped securely on top of the small trunk on the back of his bike, and shakes his head. “These ones weren’t ripe enough to sell. I probably grabbed a crate of the ones meant for Lumiose on accident.” The lie comes out surprisingly easily.

“That doesn’t seem like you,” is all Eren says in response, but doesn’t push it. Levi wonders how long it will be until Eren no longer stops at suspicion but pushes right through to full on accusation and discovery.

Considering they’re now aimed towards the Aquacorde bridge, Levi might never know.

They’re nearly halfway through the square, rounding the large central fountain that is somehow clean of both Pokémon and children, when Eren halts them.

“Wait, Levi, wait—do you have any coins?” Eren turns big, hopeful, stupid green eyes on him, and Levi stares flatly back.

“Coins?”

“For the fountain,” Eren explains, and even if there’s still trepidation hidden deep within his features, there’s mostly excitement again. Possibly because they can see the other end of the bridge from here. If Eren was so inclined, he could potentially count how many steps were left between the life he knows and his Pokémon journey.

Levi keeps their shared stare in a stalemate for a few for moments, before carefully extracting two coins from the depths of his pocket. It isn’t even from the money he just received—just spare change, almost as insignificant as pocket lint (not that Levi's pockets have any).

“I only need one,” Eren tells him, eyebrows furrowed as he holds out his hand, and Levi drops one of the coins in his open palm.

“Am I not allowed to make wishes on fountains?” Levi asks, voice even, and Eren blinks in response.

“Um.”

Levi rolls his eyes and strides past him, and it takes a moment for Eren to catch up, words falling out of his mouth quick and ineloquent.

“No, of course, anyone can wish on a fountain, it’s not—I just thought you were too old for this kind of stuff.”

Levi turns to look at Eren, one eyebrow raised.

“N-n-n-not that you’re old, you’re not old, you’re just… _Mature_. Too mature for Pokémon adventures, and making wishes on things like fountains, being friends with me, like, how did that even happen? And…” Eren’s mouth moves helplessly, like it’s trying to catch up with all of the shit that just came out of it. Or maybe Eren’s own words were finally registering in his own head, and he’d shocked himself into a temporary silence.

Levi sighs, patting Eren’s shoulder a few times, and then turns around so that his back is to the large lip of the fountain and the shallow water it holds. It actually makes him a little nervous to be standing with his back to any kind of body of water with Eren so close in vicinity, especially in the summertime—he has the horrible inclination of pushing Levi in ponds when he’s caught unaware.

But Eren just shuts his mouth and presses his shoulder up to Levi’s, and Levi tries too hard not to think about the fact that Eren is three years younger than him and _still_ taller than he is—and most likely still growing. He shoves into Eren none-too-gently, and a laugh startles out of Eren.

“Hey, I was in the middle of wishing!” Eren bites, but the mirth in his voice rounds the edges of it. “I could have fallen in.”

“You’d deserve it,” Levi mutters, and then quietly watches as Eren shakes his head and closes his eyes, lips stretched into such a large, genuine smile that Levi has the strange urge to reach out and touch it. Instead he balls his hands into fists, feels the coin press hard into his skin, and then throws it over his shoulder.

It’s only once he’s heard it _plink_ into the water that he realizes he didn’t make a wish.

His eyes dart to Eren, who still has the coin held in a fist over his heart, and thinks, _I hope you’re happy_.

It’s probably the most passive aggressive wish he’s ever made. An easy feat, considering he never makes wishes.

 _It’s not even a real wish_ , he reminds himself, watching Eren throw his own coin. It lands cleanly in the water, but Levi still says, “You missed.”

“What?” Eren turns, hands gripping the edge of the stone that rings the fountain, like he’ll somehow be able to tell his coin from the thousands that decorate the mosaic tile under the water. “No I didn’t!” Eren assures him, hackles raised, and Levi just shrugs. “I heard it hit the water,” Eren insists, sounding only slightly morose, and Levi just shrugs again. Eren glares at him, seems to contemplate doing something stupid (like shoving Levi, or pushing him into the coin infested waters), seems to think better of it, and then splays his palms against the stone beneath his hands and breathes deeply, like he’s about to say something.

Levi waits.

And waits.

And when Eren remains silent, is ready to remind him that he _is_ sort of in the middle of something, when Eren’s words beat Levi’s to the punch.

“I wonder how many trainers started their journeys here,” Eren says, looking across the length of the fountain the bridge beyond. “How many have stopped at this fountain and wished for success.”

 _Is that what you wished for?_ Is on the tip of Levi’s tongue, but he swallows it back. Not because of all that garbage about not asking someone what they wished for, but because he doesn’t have a legitimate reason not to tell Eren what _he_ wished for.

 _It wasn’t even a real wish_ , he tells himself again.

“And now it’s your turn,” Levi says, pushing away from the fountain. “Come on, or Jean will be Champion before you even get to Lumiose.”

That seems to snap Eren out of whatever weird, pensive mood he’d entered, and he snaps away from the fountain and begins to walk around it, treating it like it’s just the fucking fountain that it is and not some omen for his future as a Pokémon trainer.

“Like fuck he is,” Eren grumbles, stomping his feet towards the bridge, and Levi walks behind him, watching as his angry tirade leads him all the way up to the very edge of where the bridge begins—and then stops just before he steps onto it.

Levi feels exhausted by how many fucking moments Eren keeps having, but, then again, he is about to leave home and not come back for what is most definitely an incredibly long time, so… Levi doesn’t push him. This isn’t a small deal, even if Levi wants to make it one, and it’s not fair of him to let Eren move forward faster than he wants to.

Faster than he should.

He wonders if he should have let Eren dawdle at the stone archway that denotes the entrance into Vaniville, so he could truly recognize what, exactly, he was leaving behind.

“I guess this is it,” Eren starts, flinging his arms about nervously as he stares at the forest on the other side. There’s a path from the bridge, but it’s quickly obscured by the sheer density of Santalune forest. It looks exactly like an unknown path into the future should. “I guess this is… Goodbye.” The word sounds strange on Eren’s tongue when he says it, and when he finally turns to look at Eren, there’s a sadness in his eyes that hasn’t been there since his Pokémon journey went from his biggest dream to his nearest reality.

Levi’s seen the sadness in Carla Jaeger’s eyes. He knows it’s been hidden deep inside his own eyes.

Shit, even Levi’s own mother had it.

“This is goodbye,” Eren says again, like he doesn’t quite believe it, and reaches up to adjust the hat on his head like maybe the shade of the brim will hide the sudden shininess of his eyes. He dips his head, shoving his hands in his pockets, and for a second, he looks everything like a Pokémon Trainer and nothing like the kid who has made Levi’s life simultaneously miserable and wonderful for the last ten years.

Eren says, “Levi, I—” and Levi takes a deep breath.

“There’s a lot of tall grass in Santalune Forest,” Levi says, like Eren wasn’t just on the cusp of what would most likely be a very emotional goodbye speech, even though it would be all off the cuff. Levi truly believes that Eren didn’t realize he’d have to say goodbye until he was about to cross the bridge.

It throws Eren as much as Levi expects it to (which is to say, quite a bit).

“Huh?” Eren blinks rapidly, no longer concerned with trying to hide the fact that he’d almost started crying.

(That does something to Levi that he would rather not consider at this point in time, just as he’s chosen not to consider many thoughts and feelings he’s felt over the last week.

Like the ones compelling him to do _this_.)

“Tall grass,” Levi reiterates, fingers curling so tightly around the handlebars of his bicycle that his knuckles turn white. “You know, where wild Pokémon tend to lurk the most?” Even if it wasn’t Pokémon 101, Eren should know for experience. He’d had his ankles bitten running through that grass as a child more often than not.

“I—what?” Eren presses his fingers to his temple, skewing his hat and looking like he’s trying his best to figure out where the conversation went and how it got there.

“You don’t have your starter yet, so I was just thinking about what a pain in the ass getting through all that grass is going to be.” Levi shrugs, still keeping his eyes resolutely on the path in front of him, even if his gaze flits to the side to take Eren in every so often. “It’s a good thing we have my bike, but if you crush any of those berries, you’re fucking paying for them.”

“I—” Eren splutters, and then his hand lands hard on Levi’s arm, jerking him around to face Eren. “Hold on a second, _what?_ ” He looks completely dumbfounded. “What are you saying?”

Levi rolls his eyes in an openly obvious way, as if this has been the plan the entire time and Eren is just catching on. Which, in reality, is exactly what is happening, only that Eren wasn’t aware of what the plan was from the get-go.

“We’ll ride my bike through Santalune Forest to avoid getting ambushed,” Levi enunciates slowly, and Eren shakes his head.

“No, not that, you’re—you’re what? You’re going with me to Santalune City?” Eren’s eyebrows pinch, and Levi nods once. “And then going back home?” Levi shakes his head, and Eren’s expression turns even more pinched. “To Lumiose and then back?”

Levi sighs, brushing Eren’s hand off his arm, and then flicking Eren in the forehead.

“I’m just going with you,” Levi explains. “To Santalune, to Lumiose, to fucking Coumarine. Just… With you.”

He really wishes Eren picked up on this sort of shit faster. Subtext has never been his strong point. But sometimes stating shit like this outright makes Levi feel something akin to humiliation, so it would be better if Eren could just _get the fucking picture_ and they could move on.

“You’re coming with me?” Eren gapes at him, voice colored with disbelief. “But… But you don’t _want_ to be a Pokémon trainer.”

“I also don’t want to harvest berries in my backyard for the rest of my life.” Levi mounts his bike and then looks at Eren. “Are you coming, or what?” He looks back at Eren, who has both straps of his backpack clenched tightly in his hands and a strange look on his face. He seems torn between his need to confront this entire situation right then and there, and gratefulness at not needing to say goodbye to his best friend abruptly and without notice (at least, abruptly and without notice as far as Eren’s concerned).

Although the latter may very well be Levi just seeing things he wants to see.

“I—yeah.” Eren shifts the strap of his backpack, and then carefully straddles the rack and back tire of Levi’s bike. It’s something they’ve been doing since Levi was younger than Eren is, enough so that the pegs Eren installed for him (without his permission) are still there for him to stand on. That when Eren goes to catch his balance, his hands settle easily on Levi’s shoulders and stay there.

Levi closes his eyes and takes a moment.

“It’s easier when I can sit,” Eren says so suddenly that Levi nearly laughs in surprise.

As it is, he settles with a scowl, ignoring the warmth of Eren’s hands where they press into his shoulders. “It would be easier if you had your own bike.” He looks back at Eren over his shoulder, and Eren grins at him. It seems that, for the time being, all questions of _what the fuck Levi is doing_ have been set aside. “Ready?”

Eren presses his lips together, hands squeezing tight to Levi’s shoulders as he looks at Aquacorde behind them. Aquacorde means nothing to Eren. Today is the first and last time he’s seeing it. If Aquacorde means anything to either of them, it’s Levi, who has been making weekly trips here for the last three years.

He doesn’t spare it a glance.

He said his goodbyes in Vaniville, as did Eren, and when Eren turns back to look at him, there’s excitement in his eyes again.

“Yep. Let’s go!”


	2. chapter two

“I can’t believe I missed my opportunity to catch so many Pokémon,” Eren bemoans as the sun starts to set and Levi’s bike transitions from the off road paths of the forest to the tamer ones of a well kept route. Eren is leaning on him, using Levi to support more of his weight than the bike, and Levi pushes back against it.

“You’ll have more chances, so get the fuck off me or you’ll catch an elbow to the gut.”

Eren shifts back reluctantly, just as Levi pulls them to a stop at the top of the hill.

“Why’d you stop?” Eren asks, and looks around like maybe something worthwhile caused Levi to hit the breaks.

“There was a super rare Pokémon,” Levi intones.

“Really?”

“No.” Levi looks at Eren over his shoulder. “Get off my bike.” He shakes the frame back and forth enough times that Eren complies with only a few disgruntled complaints before promptly falling silent. “What?” Levi snaps, when Eren avoids looking him in the eye. “Look, even if there was a super rare Pokémon, you couldn’t fucking catch it if you wanted to. How would you weaken it? Rocks?”

“It’s not that, it’s—” Eren deflates before he even gets the chance to get fully worked up, letting out a long, thoughtful sigh. “Did you change your mind already?” He scuffs his heel against the dirt, and Levi stares in bemusement.

“Changed my—shit, Eren, I just told you to get off my bike.” In the same breath, Levi gets off his bike as well, and Eren startles in surprise. “I’ve been chauffeuring you through a forest all day.” He gives Eren a hard look. “I didn’t change my mind, I’m just fucking tired.”

Eren lifts the hat from his head and looks away, pushing the hair off his forehead with the side of his hand and looking appropriately embarrassed for assuming dumb shit like he usually does. He pauses though, his eyes catching on something in the distance, and Levi turns to look.

At the bottom of a rolling series of hills, enclosed on all sides by masterfully made stone walls, is Santalune City. Santalune Gym is the most prominent building from this distance, the setting sun blinking off of it like a gemstone fastened into a charming setting. It’s… Well, Levi _loathes_ to say a word like _massive_ , but it’s far larger than Aquacorde and, as a result, immeasurably larger than Vaniville. They both stare at it for a few moments, and then meet each other’s eyes

“Santalune City,” Eren says, like it needs pointing out, and Levi rolls his eyes. “Where I’ll get my Bug Badge.” There’s a thrum of pride in Eren’s voice, like he’s about to walk through the gym’s doors and take the badge at any moment.

“When you have Pokémon,” Levi clarifies, deflating the ego right out of Eren’s posture and getting a frown as a result.

“Yeah, yeah, come on. It’s getting dark.” He crosses his arms and sulks as they descend the hill, and Levi dips his head to hide a smile.

“At least you’ll be right about your first night on your own,” he comments a few moments later, and Eren glances back at him.

“How’s that?”

“You’ll get to sleep at a Poké Center or, better yet, even an Inn.” A town this size is sure to have one. “Any clue how you’re going to pay for it?” He asks Eren cooly, and Eren stills mid-step, so quickly that he nearly topples forward. Levi reaches out to grab him by the back of his jacket to steady him, making a disapproving noise in the back of his throat.

“Shit, how am I going to _pay_ for it?” Eren’s voice spikes in panic, and Levi gives him a shove until he’s found his footing again.

“You’re lucky you have me, brat,” is all Levi says in response. He wonders how many times that’ll continue being true throughout their journey.

(Probably daily.)

He buys them a room to share for the night at the Santalune Inn. It doesn’t cost him more than a few berries out of the extra crate he brought with him, specifically to cover any costs they have until one of them starts earning money one way or another. Apparently Pokémon training can be pretty lucrative, although Levi has yet to understand how.

There’s one bed, which Levi assumes will be the norm in most inns. After all, most trainers travel on their own. He’s sure he could get a bigger room with a few more berries, but Eren doesn’t even seem slightly perturbed by the fact.

They shared beds when they had sleepovers.

But they were also much younger then.

Maybe their current age doesn’t make as much of a difference to Eren as it does to Levi.

“...you’re really doing this,” Eren says later, when the lights are off and Levi’s nearly asleep. It startles him back into full consciousness, and he resists the urge to turn and face Eren, keeping his back towards the No Man’s Land between them on the mattress. “You’re really going with me.”

Levi sighs and closes his eyes.

“Is it really that hard to believe?” Levi asks, voice heavy with his exhaustion. He hasn’t ridden his bike so much or so constantly for years. Even with all the manual labor he does daily, he’s sure he’ll feel it in the coming days.

“No,” Eren replies simply. “And yes,” he contradicts himself only seconds later. Levi feels him flip around on the mattress, enough to know that Eren is now staring at the exposed nape of his neck and not at the window on the other side of the room. “You were so adamant about not becoming a Pokémon Trainer almost four years ago. What changed?”

“Nothing.” Levi keeps his back to Eren, even though Eren’s gaze feels like an insistent pull for him to turn around. “I said I was going with you, not that I was becoming a Pokémon Trainer.”

“Yeah, but—”

“But nothing,” Levi interrupts. “That’s all there is to it.” Except that it isn’t. “Go to sleep, Eren. We go to Lumiose tomorrow.” His tone is final enough that Eren only mutters a put-out goodnight, flipping back over so that they’re facing away from one another again.

Levi stares at the wall and reminds himself that he never has any intention of listing all the reasons he decided to go with Eren—especially since Eren is _one_ of those reasons.

*

Lumiose is in sight as soon as they leave Santalune (with Eren vowing to return to get his Bug Badge as soon as he’s actually able). The only thing separating the cities is a massive, immaculate garden, not that Eren is in any mood to stop and admire it. Lumiose is where his first Pokémon is waiting for him, and the second he finally has it is when his journey will start to feel real. After all, sharing a bed with your best friend in a strange town only a day’s walk from home is hardly the start to an adventure.

When it comes to Lumiose, Levi doesn’t hesitate to describe it as massive. The large walls that surround the circular city tower so high that the only thing visible over them is the top of the Prism Tower.

“They say Lumiose is the largest city in the world,” Eren tells him in an awed voice. He’s so taken aback by the sight of the capitol, and the promise of Pokémon in the near future, that he doesn’t even stop Levi to have them wish at the swimming-pool sized fountain in the middle of the gardens. Or to observe the dozens upon dozens of Pokémon battles taking place between trainers around them.

“Keep your head,” Levi reminds Eren, and himself. He can act as unaffected as he wants by all of this, but this is all just as new to him as it is to Eren. He’s only ever seen Lumiose in pictures, or on television, or occasionally in his Holo Caster. It’s another thing to see it in person. “I’d say you’re free to lose it after you get your Pokémon, but I actually expect it.”

“Shut the fuck up, Levi.” Eren nudges him playfully, excitement easily overriding any upset he might have had at Levi’s words. “You’re just as excited as I am, I know you are.”

Levi makes a noncommittal noise and shrugs.

“Do you know where Professor Sycamore’s lab even _is?_ ” It’s not like either of them has a _map_ of Lumiose. Maybe they hand them out when you pass through the gates.

Lumiose inside the walls is incredibly more awe-inducing. Even Levi comes to a stop, neck craning to see the tops of the buildings packed neatly side-by-side. The city is flooded with people, moving more like the river that Levi had anticipated, and everywhere is intricate brickwork, wrought iron window covers, and oxidized copper roofs that create a beautiful blue patina. Everything speaks to a place that would be overcrowded and unkempt, a breeding ground for disgust and disease. But everything is meticulous and neat, down to the shaped trees and stripes of grass that divide the cobbled streets.

Nobody hands them a map, which is not surprising, but Eren actually seems to know where he’s going, catching Levi a little off guard. But not nearly as much as Eren’s hand wrapping around his does.

“Come on, Levi, it’s this way! We can sight-see afterwards,” Eren promises, heading off somewhere to the left of where they entered. For the first few steps, Levi is simply being dragged behind him, but then he comes to and focuses more on navigating the sea of people and holding tight to Eren’s hand in return (so he doesn’t lose him, of course). Eren doesn’t seem nearly as distracted as Levi feels he is, but maybe that’s because the promise of his Pokémon has all of his attention focused to a pinpoint.

Professor Sycamore’s lab really isn’t all that far from where they entered Lumiose. It’s sanctioned off from the constant to-and-fro of Lumi Cabs and Gogoats by a copper plated iron fence that stretches between stone pillars, providing glimpses at a manicured lawn and several trees that seemed to have been planted to create a mirror image on either side of the walkway. The most denoting features are the Pokeball statues that tower over the main entrance, and Eren and Levi both look up at them as they pass through.

There are people settled against the trees, both Eren’s age and older (even older than Levi, which surprises him), holding either a Fennekin, a Froakie, or a Chespin. They aren’t the only two people heading up the steps, and the lobby has people everywhere. The only thing that separates Levi and Eren from most of them is that that they aren’t there on their own.

Levi doesn’t realize Eren is still holding his hand until he’s squeezing it suddenly.

“I’m glad you’re here with me,” Eren says quietly, sending him a small smile, which Levi fails to return before Eren looks away. He doesn’t know how to say _me to_ without actually saying it, so he just squeezes Eren’s hand back.

There’s a small line for the reception desk, and they wait in it patiently. Well, Levi waits in it patiently and tells Eren to stop jumping around like he has to piss every few seconds.

“I didn’t think it would be this busy. Do you think it’s always this busy?” Eren asks, the cheery good nature in his voice forced to hide his nerves. Levi can still hear them, but then again, Levi’s ears are a little more practiced at hearing the nuances in Eren’s tone than most.

“A lot of people want to be Pokémon Trainers,” Levi says simply, keeping his voice and face calm and even. There’s so much going on around them, and there has been since they passed from Route 4 into Lumiose—fuck, even from Santalune City to Route 4. Levi doesn’t feel the need to freak out, but if Eren is going to start losing his composure, Levi really needs to stick his.

“But so many?” Eren is starting to sound a little hysterical.

“Not everyone uses Pokémon to battle, Eren,” Levi reminds him. “Look at my mom. Or yours. Or your dad, even. Or most of the people back home. There’s Pokémon everywhere, but neither Vaniville or Aquacorde has a gym to their name to make either city a hotspot for traditional trainers.” Levi gives him a small smile. “Not all these people are going to be competing against you. I’d say you still have mostly Jean to worry about.”

“I’m not worried about him at all,” Eren states, completely serious. “If there’s anyone to be worried about, it’s Mikasa. I’m surprised we haven’t heard that she’s usurped one of the Elite 4 yet.”

Levi finds that he is, too. As calm and collected as Mikasa seems, there’s fire beneath all that steel that frankly makes her a little terrifying.

(To most people. Levi’s not terrified of her—he's _not_.)

“I’m here to get my first Pokémon,” Eren tells the receptionist in a rush of nerves when it’s finally their turn. The woman smiles at him politely, at least, and doesn’t roll her eyes the way Levi would have. _Everyone_ is here to get their first Pokémon.

“Your name?” She asks kindly.

“Eren Jaeger.”

“And yours?” She turns to Levi, eyebrows raised above the rims of her glasses, and Levi blanks.

Long enough, in fact, for Eren to say, “Levi Ackerman.”

“Wait,” Levi cuts in quickly. “I’m not—”

“Don’t be silly,” she interjects smoothly, glancing up at him even as her fingers type their information into the device in front of her. “Everyone is here to get a Pokémon.”

*

“I’m not supposed to be here, Eren,” Levi insists for the two dozenth time as they’re directed into an elevator and up to the third floor.

“That’s not true.” Eren rocks on his heels and looks at him, his smile all teeth. “They called both of our names, didn’t they?”

Levi scowls at him. They wouldn’t even _have_ his name if Eren hadn’t _given_ it to them.

He didn’t come here to get a Pokémon. He doesn’t _want_ a Pokémon. He doesn’t want to _be_ a Pokémon Trainer. He has his hands full as it is looking after Eren, he doesn’t need to add Pokémon on top of that. Granted, most of his mother’s Pokémon were pretty self sufficient, and he got along with them just fine, but at the end of the day he wasn’t responsible for them.

To think he’d mentally chided Eren for not knowing anything about Pokémon. Levi’s worked with them his whole life, and he’s still not confident that he’d know what to do with one if it was put in his care.

He’s betting on the fact that Professor Sycamore is a reasonable person (he is a fucking _professor_ , after all) and won’t just hand out a Pokémon to someone who doesn’t want one. That just isn’t fair to the Pokémon, after all.

The elevators open with a soft _ding_ on the third floor, revealing what must be a Pokémon lab, not that Levi or Eren have ever seen one before. Although Levi assumes that the huge windows that make up the entire back wall to look out over what appears to be a large park isn’t exactly standard.

“That’s where they raise all the starter Pokémon,” Eren tells him, and his voice is vibrating as much as his actual skin. He’s literally _buzzing_ with how excited he is, and Levi wonders if his body shaking caused his voice to or if it’s perhaps the other way around.

Either way, better Eren than him.

Professor Sycamore is standing in front of them, arms crossed over his chest and three Pokéballs resting on a velvet cushion in front of him. If Levi hadn’t seen him before, his age might have been shocking (although _lack_ of age might be a better way of putting it).

“Welcome to Lumiose City,” he greets, kind and friendly and, to Levi’s surprise, genuinely. Like he doesn’t say the same exact thing to hundreds of would-be trainers every day of his week. “I’m Professor Sycamore, the Pokémon Professor for Kalos. I assume you are both here to begin your Pokémon journey.” He’s smiling as he approaches the three Pokéballs before him. They seem so… Unassuming, just sitting there.

Eren is babbling his way through an introduction and his name, eyes bright and awe-filled the way any perspective trainer’s would be right before they receive their very first Pokémon. But this is Levi’s chance to explain the misunderstanding, and he steps forward, drawing the Professor’s attention away from Eren.

“Actually, no, I’m not,” he tells the Professor. “The girl at reception got confused.”

“ _Levi_ ,” Eren hisses, and Levi’s not sure if he’s being scolded or if Eren is just embarrassed by his behavior. As per usual, he ignores it either way.

“Did she?” Professor Sycamore looks more amused by this than Levi had been expecting. “And why is that?”

“Well, Eren here came to get his Pokémon and I’m accompanying him, so she just assumed—”

“Ah, no, I meant—why don’t you want to have a Pokémon journey? Do you find something… Distasteful about Pokémon?” He doesn’t look like he’d be offended by any answer Levi could give, but he still feels a spike of anxiety at being put on the spot. Eren is looking at him now, too. Not with any kind of maliciousness, but with open curiosity, like he’s wondering the same exact thing.

Levi feels the urge to lash out. To push something over, or say something cutting. Anything to divert this sudden influx of attention.

“Look.” He glances at Eren. “He’s been dreaming about this day for years.” _And I’m not going to make it about me._ Levi gives Eren a tight smile at his suddenly startled look. “He’s the Pokémon Trainer here, not me, so let him pick his Pokémon. Let him start his journey. If for no other reason so that I don’t have to hear about it anymore.”

Eren cracks a smile, and even the Professor chuckles a bit. The words left the scorching burn of embarrassment through Levi’s throat, but it has the desired effect. Professor Sycamore sets a hand on Eren’s shoulder and turns him toward the three Pokeballs, and Levi is left unsolicited in the background.

“Well, I’m not about to get in the way of a Pokémon Trainer and his destiny,” Professor Sycamore says. “If you’d like, we can release them from the balls before you make your choice or—”

“That’s not necessary,” Eren rushes to say, and his hand goes forward to close around the right-most ball. “I’ve made my decision.”

“Froakie.” The Professor nods. “Good choice. And did you want to give her a nickname?” He asks. Eren’s eyes go large and wide so quickly it makes Levi snort from behind them, and Professor Sycamore gives a small laugh. “Or maybe not right away.” He gives Eren’s shoulder a few pats and then steps away. “One more thing, before you go.”

The trade for being a Pokémon Trainer and for being given a Pokémon is research. Everyone knows that, even if they never plan on undertaking the task themselves. So it’s not surprising when Professor Sycamore hands Eren the telltale red Pokedex.

It’s a surprise when he hands him _two_.

“For your friend,” he explains, at Eren’s startled look. “Call it selfish of me.” He grins and gives Eren a wink. “Remember that if you ever need any assistance or have any questions, I’m here to help.”

“Right.” Eren grins back. “Thank you so much, I—I can’t even start to tell you what this means to me.”

And _that’s_ Levi’s cue.

“Then don’t.” Levi grabs Eren by the elbow. “We’ll be here all day. Thank him by filling up that Pokedex you just got.”

“Right!” Eren stumbles back the first few steps, and then turns, glancing back at the cushion of Pokeballs quickly. “Are you sure you don’t—”

“I didn’t come with you to get a Pokémon.” _I came for you_. The truth is enough that Levi quickly drops his hold on Eren in favor of covering the lower half of his face with his hand. He fakes a cough or two for good measure. “So you went with Froakie?” He asks before Eren can get anymore of his own questions out.

“Yeah. I figured it was the best choice. I knew definitely not Chespin, because I guess it’s cool but just not for me, and I was on the fence about Fennekin for awhile there, but. Yeah. Yeah. Froakie for sure.” He holds the Pokéball close to his chest, and to his heart, and Levi gives him a light shove that results in laughter. “Why, what would you have picked?”

“Probably Fennekin,” Levi muses thoughtlessly, hitting the elevator button.

“Levi Ackerman!”

The shock of hearing his name called so suddenly by the Professor causes him to turn, but it’s only his good reflexes that help him catch the Pokéball that was tossed in his direction.

“Pokémon journeys are different for everyone,” Professor Sycamore says as the elevator doors slide open. “I think you’ll be surprised about what you’ll find on your own.”

*

Eren is tugging Levi without any sort of discernable plan or coordination, but with a surprising amount of speed. It reminds Levi of their way here, Eren’s fingers wrapped warmly and firmly around his own as they make their way through the streets of Lumiose, except this time Levi is resisting.

“I have to give it back!” He insists, throwing a look over his shoulder. They’re almost out of sight of Professor Sycamore’s lab now, and Levi has no idea where Eren is taking him and, therefore, how long it will take him to get back.

“You can’t!” Eren insists right back, and Levi glares at him. They turn a corner, startling a nearby couple and their Furfrou and resulting in insulted _tsking_ , but they both ignore them. “You can’t,” Eren tells him again, eyes wide and earnest the way Levi _hates_. “I’ve seen you with Pokémon, Levi. You’re great with them. I don’t understand why you don’t want one of your own.”

Levi glances away, opening his mouth and immediately closing it.

“I think you actually do, or you would have just thrown it back at Professor Sycamore.” He taps his forehead with his own Pokéball and smiles. “Right in the head.” He’s not wrong, and that’s probably what Levi _should_ have done, he’d just honestly been a little shocked to do much of anything right in that moment. Especially when Eren had just pulled him into the elevator and managed three more platitudes of gratefulness before the doors slid shut.

He hasn’t let go of Levi since.

(Levi tries not to focus on that.)

“Come _on_.” Eren ducks around as Levi avoids meeting his eyes until he’s finally successful, and his initial whine is accompanied by a hopeful, pleading look that Levi already knows he’s prone to giving in to. “Don’t you want to go on a Pokémon journey _together?_ ” Eren’s eyes seem to sparkle even as he suggests it, and his grip on Levi’s hand gets so tight that it’s nearly painful. “Shit, if I’d known that was even an option, I would have started bugging you about it… Well, the second you didn’t go on yours in the first place.”

“It wasn’t an option.” Levi tugs his hand free and flexes it. “It’s _still_ not an option.” Even if the way Eren said _together_ is still echoing around in his head. “I’m giving it back. And then we can leave. You can finally start this adventure. Isn’t that what you want? Stop fucking making this about me.”

 _It’s about you_.

Normally this works. Normally Eren doesn’t still look so fucking apt to hope after Levi has stomped said hope into the ground.

He doesn’t shake his head and go, “No. It’s about both of us.” And fight to take Levi’s hand back. It’s just for a second this time, just for the emphasis of a squeeze, and Levi has to glance away from the freely given affection for what feels like the thousandth time since they’ve left Vaniville. “We haven’t even seen them yet, so let’s… Just start there. Okay?”

Shit. Levi hadn’t even thought of that. When they’d walked in, he had so easily been able to picture Eren under the front trees on the lawn, playing with his first Pokémon. Instead, Eren had been concerned with getting Levi as far the fuck away as he could so Levi couldn’t throw his Pokémon back.

Levi wets his lips, lacking for words, and nods.

“Come on out, Froakie!” It’s said with all the flair of a trainer, but none of the action. Eren hardly holds the ball away from his chest as he calls out his Pokémon, but it makes no difference. There’s the signature sound of the Pokéball opening, and then Froakie is there by Eren’s feet, blinking curiously at the world around it and most likely looking for a opponent.

Eren is on the ground in seconds, and Levi is impressed when the bubble frog Pokémon doesn’t so much as jerk in surprise. Instead, it takes one look at Eren and makes a happy little noise in the back of its throat before launching itself happily into Eren’s waiting arms.

“Isn’t she amazing?” Eren looks up at Levi, the joy of the moment written plainly on his face. Ah, right, Professor Sycamore had said something about Eren’s Froakie being a female. Eren starts laughing suddenly, twisting away from the happy Pokémon jumping around in his arms. “The bubbles tickle!”

“Please don’t go and name it _Bubbles_ or something stupid like that,” Levi intones, even though he can’t keep the smile off his own face. Eren grins at him, finally getting a grasp on his Froakie so that he’s holding her more than she’s crawling all over him.

“I won’t.” He presses his cheek to the top of her head. “Okay, your turn.”

Levi rolls the ball in his fingers, looking down to meet Eren’s eyes as if to challenge the idea again. Instead, he shakes his head and sighs, brandishing his Pokéball with less flourish than even Eren. He doesn’t call his Fennekin out, but it comes anyway, a flash of white light as it becomes real at his ankles.

“Woah!” Eren gasps as Levi’s own eyes widen. There on the ground between them is, indeed, a Fennekin, but it doesn’t look like any Fennekin Levi has ever _seen_. “I’ve never seen a _grey_ Fennekin before,” Eren says, scooting slightly closer on his knees, and it surprises Levi when the fox Pokémon scampers behind his legs and stares at Eren like it doesn’t quite trust him.

That, at least, draws a chuckle from Levi.

“Well aren’t you smart,” Levi hums, crouching down. The Fennekin seems slightly distressed by the motion at first, but then tucks itself near his bent knee, pressing the soft grey fur of its forehead into Levi’s thigh.

“How come Pokémon always like you so much?” Eren asks, frowning slightly at being rebuffed by what is apparently a very special Fennekin. To comfort himself, he holds his Froakie closer, and she gurgles happily.

“I don’t know,” Levi muses thoughtfully, reaching out to tentatively settle his palm in the space between the Fennekin’s ears. Professor Sycamore had identified Eren’s Froakie as a female, but Levi wonders what his Fennekin is.

 _His_ Fennekin.

Well, he supposes that’s what it is.

“It suits you,” Eren says softly, watching Levi with a warmth in his look that Levi isn’t familiar with. It makes the skin on the back of his neck feel hot. “Not just having a fire type, but the coloring and everything.” The look disappears almost as quickly as it had manifested, replaced by Eren’s run-of-the-mill biting grin. “And you said you didn’t want to be a Pokémon Trainer.”

“I don’t,” Levi remarks on autopilot, smoothing his palm down the short length of the Fennekin’s body. It gets bolder with its movements the more Levi touches it, and then pops up on its hind legs and paws at Levi’s pants. “Okay, okay, calm down,” he murmurs to it, scooping the tiny Pokémon into his arms and standing with it cradled there.

He doesn’t even realize Eren is watching him intently until he hears an unmistakable cooing sound, and responds by glaring and (carefully) flipping him off. After all, he doesn’t want to drop his Fennekin.

Eren laughs. “Sorry, but that’s literally the cutest fucking thing I’ve ever seen.”

Levi turns his head to the side, and is thankful for the brilliant red tufts of hair extending from his Fennekin’s ears and the way it conveniently hides the color blooming on his face.

*

“We should get you a hat,” Eren decides as they walk through the wide streets of Lumiose. They’re both still holding their Pokémon in their arms like they’re children rather than companions, but even Levi frowns at the thought of setting his Fennekin down in a place like this. He’ll get stepped on.

(He’s still not sure _what_ his Fennekin is, exactly, and will have to ask the next time they’re at a Poké Center, but it feels like a boy.

Probably.)

“A hat?” Levi asks, eyebrows pinching together as he catches another random passerby staring at him. At this point, he’s been approached by so many strangers about his Fennekin that he knows it’s not actually _him_ they’re staring at, but he can tell the attention doesn’t sit right with either of them.

“Yeah.” Eren touches the bill of his own. “Like mine. All Pokémon Trainers need hats.” He says it so matter-of-factly that it could be mistaken for fact rather than opinion.

“I’m not a Pokémon Trainer,” Levi grouses, _again_. Even if he _is_ clutching a Pokémon to his chest, that doesn’t mean _shit_.

“Uh huh.” Apparently, Eren doesn’t seem all that convinced, either. “Oh!” He spins around, beginning the rather dangerous feat of walking backwards, and Levi reaches out quickly to grasp him by the arm to keep him from running right into someone. “There’s a gym, here, too!” His eyes sparkle in a way that, for Levi, has become synonymous with dangerously bad ideas. “I should—”

“Not challenge an experienced gym leader with a Pokémon you got an _hour_ ago.” At this point, Levi is basically directing a backwards-walking Eren by the grasp he has on his forearm, and so easily navigates him off the bustle of the main street and under the awning of a nearby café. “Especially not with a Pokémon you haven’t even battled with yet.”

Eren’s mouth had been open, ready to combat Levi’s statement, and then falls into a pout of defeat.

“You’re right,” Eren admits with a sigh, like the words are painfully forced out of him. As often as Levi is right, Eren always bemoans admitting to it. But the childish beginnings of a tantrum disappear with the spark of an idea in Eren’s eyes, and then he’s wiggling himself out of Levi’s grasp just to clamp onto Levi’s arm instead. “Then I should battle!”

This time, Levi is unsurprised as Eren starts to drag him through Lumiose once more. Then again, he had partly signed up to be the victim of Eren’s sudden and ever-changing winds the second he invited Eren onto his bike.

“But first, your hat!”

“I don’t need a hat!”

(Suffice to say, Eren buys him a hat, which equates to Levi unfortunately having to wear it.)

*

They’re back in the gardens they originally walked through to get to Lumiose, but Eren doesn’t seem any more keen to stop and actually look around this time, either. He bursts into the first fucking flower bed he sees, and Levi darts after him, cursing.

“I don’t think we’re supposed to be fucking trampling the flowers, idiot.” Levi picks his way more carefully, knowing full well how long it takes to plant and cultivate a simple garden—who knows how long the grandiose one outside Lumiose took. Never mind the abundance of Combees that are absolutely hiding somewhere in here. It’s not that Levi is worried about getting attacked by any of them—he’s more concerned that Eren might step on one of the poor things.

By the time he catches up, Eren’s Froakie has already leapt from her perch in Eren's arms and is facing down a Ralts. Well, that took no time at all.

He thinks of the Pokédex heavy in his pocket, and with a sigh, sets Fennekin down in the flowers. He seems to enjoy this, and is immediately sprinting about in them, running circles around Levi’s ankles before poking curiously at one with his nose.

“Froakie, use bubble!” Eren calls beside them, and Levi pauses to watch for a second, one hand on the Pokédex in his back pocket, a small smile on his face.

 _I was naïve to doubt him_ , he thinks, shaking his head fondly, and then pulls out the compact red piece of technology.

“ **Ralts** ,” it announces almost immediately, sliding open to display a 3D model of the Pokémon and a reading of its stats off to the side. “ **The Feeling Pokémon. Ralts is the pre-evolved form of Kirlia. It can use the horn on its head to read human emotions. Ralts rarely shows itself to humans, but may occasionally approach when it senses positive or happy emotions.** ”

Levi smirks. “Typical,” he mutters, just as Eren throws a Pokéball for the very first time. If Levi was a bit more sentimental, he might take out his HoloLens and photograph it, but for him, being there is enough.

“I got it!” He jumps in the air, running forward to pick up his newly filled Pokéball and his Froakie in nearly the same swooping grab. He spins around with his Froakie in his arms, smiling, and the grin on his face pulls more on one side than the other as he presents his Pokéball to Levi. “I got it, Levi! I caught a Pokémon.” Eren pulls it back in, eager to hook the ball to his belt, his happiness and excitement pulsing through him like a current to the point where he’s practically vibrating. “I’m a Pokémon Trainer,” he says, like he’s not quite sure he believes it.

Levi almost points out that Eren was a Pokémon Trainer as soon as he got Froakie, but seeing as that would imply Levi is _also_ a Pokémon Trainer, he keeps his mouth shut.

“We should get your new Ralts to the Poké Center,” Levi advises, and Eren nods eagerly, but he only takes one step before a look of realization dawns on his face.

“Wait, no, you have to catch one, too!” He insists, and Levi lets out a long-suffering sigh, one he is sure he’ll be making often with how eager Eren is to make Levi a Trainer, too.

“ _Eren_ ,” he starts, but then Eren is pointing past him, a triumphant grin on his face.

“Fennekin is already one step ahead of you.”

“What?” Levi turns around and finds that Fennekin is several yards away, attempting to pounce on some floating Pokémon that almost seems to be taunting him. Frowning, Levi holds up his Pokédex, glad he hadn’t put it away yet.

“ **Fennekin, the Fox Poké—** ”

“Not that one,” Levi growls, moving the Pokédex’s view finder so that it’s more centralized on the one he doesn’t recognize.

“ **Flabébé, the Single Bloom Pokémon. Flabébé chooses a favorite flower at the beginning of its life and takes care of it from then on.** ”

This _Flabébé’s_ particular flower is white, and it lets out a tinkling little giggle every time Fennekin makes a move to catch it and fails splendidly.

“That one,” Eren says suddenly. “You should catch that one.”

“Why don’t you catch it?” Levi suggests. After all, he’d been so gung-ho a few moments before. But Eren shakes his head.

“I just caught a fairy type. Besides, I’m sure we’ll see more, and this one is tormenting poor Fennekin. Come on.” Eren latches onto his arm and uses the smile he uses on people when he’s trying to get his way.

Levi likes to pretend it doesn’t work on him, even though it does at least half of the time.

“Just this one.”

Yeah, right. Levi _highly_ doubts Eren is going to let it drop at just one.

“I don’t have any Pokéballs.” Since it would be stupid to weigh himself down with supplies he doesn’t need.

“Got you covered.” Eren takes one of the empty balls from his belt and places it on Levi’s hand, closing his fingers around it. “It’s just a regular one, nothing fancy, but it’s from home.” His hands squeeze tight around Levi’s. “You should use it.”

Levi looks at Eren’s hand encapsulating his, a part of him demanding that he keep fighting this lest Eren think he can just get his fucking way about everything, while another really wants to just hold onto this ball that Eren specifically gave him.

He sighs, and the sound must be telling enough because Eren looks like he’s won before Levi’s even acquiesced.

“Just this one,” Levi threatens, and Eren nods, following closely behind as he approaches his Fennekin.

“Okay so first you have to weaken it, but you don’t want to make it faint, and then you throw the Pokéball—”

“I know how to catch a Pokémon, Eren,” Levi bites off. Even if he’s never actually done it himself before. The fucking Flabébé looks so weak, and yet it’s easily dodging Fennekin. Levi frowns thoughtfully.

“Fennekin, come here.” His Pokémon is wonderfully and surprisingly obedient, scampering back over to him as if playtime is simply over. “You’ll never catch it like that. It’s too fast,” he tells him, wondering why, even though he does appear to be listening to Levi, silver-grey ears tilted up towards his voice. “Use ember.”

Fennekin gives a nod and turns. The Flabébé might be fast enough to evade the physical attacks, but Fennekin’s ember hits without a problem. In response, the Flabébé whirls its flower and sends a gust of what appear to be sparkles (really?) at Fennekin. It hits, and Levi clenches his fist to avoid scooping up the tiny fox and taking it away from this.

This is what Pokémon do, and Fennekin is back on his feet in seconds, a little ruffled but otherwise mostly okay.

“Again! Use ember!” Levi tells Fennekin, and the second ember hits just as successfully as the first.

“That should be good.” Eren doesn’t have to speak loudly, because he’s still standing right behind Levi, but as Levi appraises the Flabébé, he doesn’t think it _is_ good enough. It doesn’t seem ready to give up, although Levi is pretty certain another ember will make it faint. It has slowed down quite a bit…

“Use scratch!”

He can feel Eren’s surprised look more than he sees it, his eyes more focused on the battle in front of him. Flabébé is flagging enough from the back-to-back ember attacks that Fennekin has no trouble landing a scratch, and then Levi is hurling the Pokéball in the next second.

When it lays still on the ground, the Flabébé successfully caught, Eren is the first one to break the sound with a holler that must reach people back in fucking Lumiose.

“You did it! You caught it! Wow!” Eren pulls of his hat and musses his hair before setting it back into place, grinning like an idiot. He looks so fucking pleased with himself over the whole thing it makes Levi roll his eyes as he fetches Fennekin and his new Pokémon.

His new Pokémon. He really just caught one, didn’t he? He looks down at the ball, rolling it around in his hand, before clipping it to his belt.

“Now we’re both Pokémon Trainers!” Eren proclaims to the world at large, and Levi rubs his hand down Fennekin’s back and gives the Pokémon a tired look.

“He’s not going to give that up, is he?” Levi asks Fennekin, and Fennekin nuzzles his chest in response. He’ll take it as a _probably not_. “Come on. Let’s get you to a Poké Center.”

**Author's Note:**

> [read, reblog, & like on tumblr](http://missmichellebelle.tumblr.com/post/150134047315/the-evolution-of-friendship)


End file.
